


First Kiss

by wheel_pen



Series: Lucy [7]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-24
Updated: 2013-04-24
Packaged: 2017-12-09 08:22:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/772100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Both Lucy and Lex are having trouble with their parental figures. The only logical response is to complicate the situation even further.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Lucy, my original character, is Clark’s cousin on the Kent side. Although human she may have some strange psychic powers and definitely has some issues in her past. She’s having a tough time with her mom and goes to live with Jonathan and Martha for a while. She and Lex form a relationship.
> 
> 2\. In my world, Lex eventually becomes President. And his staff is from The West Wing. 
> 
> 3\. I started writing this series during the third season of Smallville, so it diverges from canon then or earlier.
> 
> 4\. Underage warning: This story may contain human or human-like teenagers, in high school, in sexual situations.
> 
> 5\. The bad words are censored. That’s just how I do things.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this AU. I own nothing and appreciate the chance to play in this universe.

            “Thanks, I’d love some.” Lex was so startled by the sudden voice from the doorway he almost dropped the glass of scotch he was pouring. He sighed and rolled his eyes when he saw who it belonged to, however.

            “What I don’t understand,” he began snidely, “is why my expensive security system doesn’t keep you out.”

            “Maybe it’s because I own the place,” his father answered with an insincere smile, taking the drink Lex reluctantly offered him.

            “Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting that,” Lex replied pointedly, watching his father settle into a chair by the fire as if he, well, owned the place.

            “You keep forgetting a lot of things,” Lionel began, gesturing impatiently for his son to sit on the couch opposite him.

            Pouring himself another drink, Lex dragged himself over to the sofa, fighting the instinct to regress into a sixteen-year-old brat that his father always seemed to inspire in him. Instead he feigned confidence, propping his feet up on the hand-carved Peruvian coffee table in a way he knew his father hated. “I know I forgot to change the security code on the gate,” he answered tartly. “I’ll get right on that.”

            “You’re forgetting your position,” his father told him, ignoring the jab.

            “I think I know _exactly_ what my position is,” Lex replied with some irritation. “Supervisor of Fertilizer Plant Number 3, Smallville, Kansas. Back end of the universe.”

            “I _meant_ , your position in _society_.” Lex rolled his eyes again. “I’ve been hearing some very disturbing reports about your behavior here, Lex.”

            “Like what?” his son demanded indignantly. “It’s _Smallville_. I couldn’t find trouble if I went _looking_ for it.”

            “Traffic accidents—“

            “It was a fender-bender! Nobody was hurt!”

            “Financial irregularities—“

            “Oh come on! You _know_ that was a problem with their computer system.”

            “Brawling like a schoolboy—“

            “ _He_ attacked _me_! There were a dozen witnesses! The police didn’t even file charges!”

            “My point, _if_ I could finish a sentence,” Lionel continued acidly, “is that the _appearance_ of impropriety can be enough to undermine one’s leadership.”

            “Well, thanks for the memo, Dad,” Lex snapped, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I guess lying to your stockholders, cheating your employees, and polluting the environment are okay, as long as you don’t get a _traffic ticket_ while doing it.”

            “Lex, I don’t have time for your childish excuses.” The younger man started to protest but his father cut him off. “I’ve said before that this is your test. If you can’t _act_ like a respectable Supervisor of Fertilizer Plant Number 3, how are you going to be a respectable leader of all of LuthorCorp?”

            “Well, LuthorCorp seems to have gotten along okay _without_ a respectable leader for quite a while.”

            Lionel shook his head in disappointment. “This is exactly the kind of juvenile, impulsive, ill-conceived behavior that I’m talking about, Lex.” The younger man felt a very strong urge to hurl the leaded crystal glass in his hand at the fireplace. And perhaps he would accidentally _miss_ the fireplace and hit something else. “When you were younger, hopping around from club to club, city to city”—Lex rolled his eyes; of _course_ his father liked to rub his less-than-stellar past in his face, even though _he_ had been the one funding it—“things could be… cleaned up. A little money changes hands, you move on, everybody’s happy. But,” Lionel continued, “these people you see every day. They remember things. So--you need to _think_ about how you’re going to be perceived here. It’s all about avoiding scandal, Lex.”

            “Do what you want, just don’t get caught,” his son summarized sourly.

            Lionel sighed patiently. “It’s a little easier to get caught when you stay in one place all the time.”

            “ _That’s_ why you travel so much.” Lionel started to speak but Lex stood up, walked around behind the couch with his drink. He and his father had been sitting about six feet apart, but for Lex even that was getting uncomfortably close. “I know what I’m doing here, Dad,” Lex assured him. “You’re talking about isolated, _minor_ events over the past six months. If it’s real scandal you’re trying to avoid, try talking to some of your own executives.” Lex leaned on the couch, pausing for maximum effect. “I’ve been hearing some pretty wild rumors lately. Makes me think your board meetings are lot more fun than I remembered.” Lex saw from his father’s clenched jaw that he’d hit a nerve, and he was pleased.

            “Believe me, I plan to do just that,” Lionel growled.

            “Aw, but you wanted to come see me first? That’s sweet,” his son added sarcastically.

            “I am trying to think about what is best for your future, and the future of the company—“

            “And the future of your retirement package.”

            “—and all I want to hear from you from now on are positive quarterly reports. I don’t want to hear about anymore ‘bank computer problems,’ anymore ‘mistaken identities,’ I don’t even want to hear about a parking ticket.”

            “I don’t know what you think I’m up to here,” Lex replied, and this time his voice sounded sullen even to his own ears, “but I have a feeling it’s a lot more exciting than reality.”

            “Then let’s just keep it that way.”

            For a moment both men were silent, staring at each other across a gulf that seemed miles wide. Sometimes Lex felt like he hadn’t been raised by a father so much as a slightly psychotic business consultant… and if there weren’t a multibillion dollar company at stake, he’d like the biological connection erased entirely.

            Lionel was about to set down his glass and leave when he heard the heavy wooden door to the lounge squeak open, followed by a soft padding sound. “Lex,” began a surprisingly youthful voice, “can I use your toothbrush? I didn’t—“

            By leaning forward and turning, Lionel was able to see the figure who had just walked into the room—a girl, _rather_ young, in pajama bottoms and a tank top that were clearly intended for warm-weather sleeping, both emblazoned with cartoon monkeys. Her feet were bare, and her red hair was bound in two braids that dangled past her slender shoulders.

            “Sorry,” she stammered quickly upon seeing the visitor. “It can wait.” A moment later she was gone the way she came.

            Lionel turned back to his son and found his expression exactly as he had expected—a dash of horror combined with a breathless search for an explanation that sounded reasonable. Lionel didn’t wait for him to come up with it. “How old is she?” he demanded coldly.

            “Older than she looks,” Lex replied, but his voice was far from confident.

            “She’d better be about _five years_ older than she looks.”

            “That might be pushing it a bit,” his son admitted.

            Lionel was on his feet in an instant.  “Your reality looks exciting enough,” he observed with a mix of irritation and triumph. “You’re coming up with new… predilections all the time. What are you telling her parents?”

            Lex’s eyes widened. “Dad, this is not what you think it is—“

            “No?”

            “No!” his son continued indignantly. “She’s a friend—“ One of Lionel’s eyebrows went up. “—she’s having a rough time with her aunt and uncle, she just didn’t want to be there—“ Lionel’s other eyebrow went up. “—so she’s spending the night here. That’s all.”

            “Oh, that’s all?” His father’s tone was too casual, and Lex readied himself for the assault. “ _All_ you’re doing is harboring a teenage runaway? And here I thought it was something _inappropriate_.”

            “Dad, you don’t—“

            “No, no, that’s _very_ good PR, son,” Lionel continued viciously. “Very charitable of you. Maybe you could open a shelter here at the mansion.”

            “Dad—“

            “At least you could get a tax deduction on what you’re paying her.“

            Pause. “Get out.”

            There was something in his son’s voice that sounded suddenly different, and Lionel wasn’t sure he liked it. “I thought we’d already established that I own—“

            “Get out _now_.”

            Lionel backed up, and somehow he felt like he was retreating. “We’re not done with this, Lex,” he said, picking up the briefcase he’d set on the floor. “You’re going to be hearing from me—“ Lex took a step forward, and Lionel found himself hurrying to open the lounge doors. Don’t be ridiculous, he told himself, but there was something in Lex’s eyes—

            “ _Now_.” The word was practically whispered, but Lionel wasted no time in showing himself out the main doors of the mansion. An instant later he heard the unmistakable sound of a heavy glass half-filled with scotch shattering on the wood behind him, and he finally remembered when he had seen a look like that in his son’s eyes before. The boy had been seventeen, and discovered his father giving one of his late wife’s furs to his new girlfriend. The girlfriend hadn’t stuck around for very long. Lionel would have to think this over carefully… in the car on the way back to Metropolis, of course.

 

            The older man who could only be Lex’s father stormed out of the house so quickly that he didn’t notice Lucy tucked behind a suit of armor in the hall. She couldn’t believe she’d been stupid enough to walk in on Lex meeting with _anyone_ , let alone his dad—whom he made no secret of disliking. The glass hurled across the hall to smash on the outer doors was not exactly indicative of a warm parting. When it looked like Lex wasn’t leaving the lounge himself, however, Lucy dashed back upstairs to her room and hastily grabbed the clothes she’d hastily grabbed from her room at the Kent Farm not an hour earlier. She shoved the shoes on her feet, almost pulled a muscle forcing her arms into her sweatshirt jacket, and sprinted down the back stairs just as she heard Lex calling her name from the hall. She should have known this wasn’t the right place to go—it was just going to cause more problems.

            Lucy had almost reached her bike in the courtyard when the front door opened. “Lucy! Lucy, wait.” She ignored him and started running the bike towards the gate, but Lex maneuvered himself in front of her.

            “Where are you going to go?” he asked matter-of-factly.

            “I don’t know,” she replied sullenly, pushing past him. “That’s kind of the _point_ of running away, isn’t it?”

            “Lucy.” Reasonable. She kept going. “ _Lucy_.” Irritated. She kept going. “Lucy!” Lex grabbed her arm, yanked her away from the bike, and set her smartly on the low wall surrounding the garden. Eye to eye, with his hands on either side of her, she was trapped. And part of her didn’t mind too much…

            “You can run away from your aunt and your uncle,” he began, voice dangerously low, “but you can’t run away from me. They don’t understand what you’re thinking, but I do. And there is nowhere you can go where I can’t find you.”

            With anyone else, it would have sounded creepy, but coming from Lex, Lucy found it strangely comforting. “I don’t want to get you in trouble,” she breathed, curling her hands up in her sleeves protectively.

            He smiled a little bit, the kind of smile that was more like he was baring his teeth. “I think that’s inevitable at this point.”

            “Your dad—I didn’t know—“

            “Luthor Senior loves his surprise visits,” Lex told her darkly. “But I can handle him.”

            She felt like his stare ought to be boring a hole right through her to the wall beyond. “Wha-what did you tell him?” And for some reason her mouth had gone dry.

            “That the situation was… perfectly innocent,” he replied smoothly.

            Lucy decided the top of the wall she was sitting on must be sloped, and that was why she found herself leaning towards him. She was only following the pull of gravity, after all. “Of course it’s perfectly innocent,” she agreed. It was becoming increasingly difficult to focus on anything that _wasn’t_ his face.

            “Absolutely…” He leaned closer, tilted his head a bit—her fingers touched his shirt, grasping at the fine linen like a drowning person reaching for the shore, and she couldn’t remember lifting her arms at all—his lips were on hers, and she forgot how to breathe, forgot how to move, forgot that she had a body anywhere, let alone one that was sitting on a cold hard wall in rather thin pajamas—then her arms were around his neck, the only solid point in a whirling storm, although there seemed to be growing warm spots where his hands rested on her waist—

            She felt a little colder and opened her eyes to see Lex watching her from a few inches away with a curious expression, as if something very strange had just happened that he was trying to figure out before everyone else. Probably she’d said something crazy again. “What were we talking about?” Lucy asked, her mind a blank.

            “About how perfectly innocent your being here is,” he told her levelly.

            “Oh,” she shrugged. “That’s disappointing. Come here.” And she grabbed his collar and pulled him in for a second kiss.

 

            Lex stood in the hallway, watching Lucy’s reflection in the bedroom’s full-length mirror as she brushed her teeth. As he expected, the number he had dialed on his cell phone was answered almost immediately. “Hey, Clark, it’s me… I know, I think I can help… No, I mean she’s _here_ … Yes, she’s—“ Lex rolled his eyes and moved away from the bedroom door, trying to keep his tone neutral. “Hello, Mr. Kent… Yes, yes, she’s fine… Well, I don’t know, Mr. Kent, she just showed up at the door a couple hours ago…” Lex let just a little bit of an edge creep into his voice—less than he felt like adding. “She didn’t _want_ me to call you. She seemed pretty upset…” He turned and wandered back down the hallway. “I think it’d be better if she stayed here tonight.” Lex peered through the crack between the bedroom door and the doorjamb, watching as Lucy yawned one last time and crawled into the sapphire blue sheets.

            Narrowly concealing his exasperation at the attitude of the man on the phone, Lex again moved farther away, to avoid disturbing the girl. “Mr. Kent, she’s finally asleep, and it took me two hours to get her that way.” Lex suddenly realized that statement could be taken another way, one that Jonathan Kent would not appreciate. Fortunately Jonathan didn’t pick up on it. _Unfortunately_ , in Lex’s opinion, the more innocent way was the truth. He allowed himself to sound indignant, and a little arrogant. “Mr. Kent, this house has _twenty-two_ bedrooms. I think I can find a place for an eighteen-year-old girl that even _you_ wouldn’t object to.” People hated it when he mentioned the— _S—t_. “Seventeen. Sorry.” A good thing to keep in mind, he told himself. “Well, I’m glad we’re agreed on that… I’ll bring her over in the morning… Yes, Mr. Kent, _first_ thing… Goodnight.” Lex hung up the line. “You’re welcome,” he told the phone sarcastically.

            He found himself back at the guest bedroom, and he gently pushed the door open farther. Lucy was curled up in bed—asleep, as far as he could see. Lex pulled the door shut again and headed off towards his own bedroom. It was probably better, he decided… he had a few things he ought to think about first. Dad would be proud.


End file.
